three cents: the transparency index
martinesque
by manjula martin
"three cents" is about money, creative work, and love,
and i send it to you about once a month.
1. a thing about money
I'm currently between legs of my "book tour" for Scratch. This tour is really just a bunch of small trips spread out over two months, because I have a day job now and can no longer just run off for two weeks to live that punk-rock, band-van lifestyle. Tomorrow, unless the weather intervenes, I leave for the AWP conference, which is already underway in DC. (And which probably means a lot of you are there now and none of you are reading this email!)
Anyway.
Response to the book has been far more enthusiastic than I anticipated (I am a worrier) and it's been a whirlwind month of mostly awesomeness. I feel proud. I feel grateful. I love that the book is doing what I wanted it to do, which is get people talking more openly about money's role in literature and other creative professions. Charlotte Shane wrote a thoughtful review talking about why this is so important for writers. But to my great surprise, in the dozens of interviews I have given about this book, so far only one (one!) journalist has asked me about the actual economics of making this book ... which is a book about the economics of making books. Journos, what's up? (That one interview was for The Millions, and it'll be online soon, and you should read it when it is cuz The Millions is great.)
So let's talk — really — about the money. As most of you know by now, this book is based in part on the late, great Scratch magazine (RIP). In the mag, we used to do a piece in every issue called The Transparency Index, in which we disclosed the finances behind the making of each editing of the mag. Hence, I present to you The Transparency Index: Book Version.
(Please note: the first man to write in and check my math/explain taxes to me gets blocked. In three, two, one...)
Advance: $30,000
Most traditionally published authors receive an advance — an up-front payment that is an “advance” against future earnings. A book advance is essentially an interest-free loan from a publisher to an author. In theory, once a book starts earning money, the author's share of those earnings are applied against the advance, and so an author doesn’t start earning actual money from royalties until the advance has been “earned out.” Many, many books never earn out. (When that’s the case, the author is not usually obligated to repay the advance.)
For Scratch, I received a $30,000 advance from my publisher, paid in three installments over the course of about two years: $15,000 upon signing of the contract in August 2015; another $10,000 upon the publisher's acceptance of the finished manuscript in April 2016 (i.e., after it's been edited and everything and is on its way into print production); and the remaining $5,000 upon publication of the book (January 3, 2017, but I actually just got the check today).
Agency fees: -$4500
My agent takes 15% across the board. And yes, she totally earns it.
Contributor fees: -$7050
Scratch has thirty-three contributors. Fifteen of them wrote new essays for the book; eight agreed to be interviewed; and ten agreed to have pieces they’d written priorly reprinted in the book (and sometimes they ended up rewriting them in the process). My publisher's contract is with me alone and the book's contributors are basically subcontractors: I signed a contract with S&S, and the book's contributors signed a contract with me. So it's up to me to pay them. Contributors were paid between $100 and $400 dollars each, depending on whether the piece was new, a reprint, or a rework (and depending on whether the author negotiated). Interviewees were paid nothing, because of journalistic ethics and all.
For their $100-$400, contributors to Scratch gave the publisher the exclusive right to publish their essays in this book, as well as the first serial rights to their essays. That means the publisher can place the essays in periodicals, either as paid first-serial publications or as "excerpts" for promotional purposes. For example, if you were one of the thousands and thousands of people who clicked on Emily Gould’s awesome Scratch essay about sexism in publishing, excerpted recently in BuzzFeed, Emily was paid nothing for your click.
Did you notice royalties are not part of the contributor payments listed up there? If the book earns out, the contributors won't receive royalties; ain't nobody in here want to be writin' checks for 6.5 cents to thirty people once a quarter for the rest of her life. (If it somehow earns tons of $$ in royalties, I promise to be nice and pass some of it on in tiered bonuses to the contribs, although that's not stipulated in their contracts.)
The moral of the story? Tip your authors, ladies and germs.
Taxes: -$8,300 (estimated)
Book earnings are self-employment earnings. 1099s, baby. I do get to write off expenses, such as my agent's fee and contributor fees. I haven't done my 2016 taxes yet, so some of this is guesswork:
2015 - $4,000 paid (total, state + feds), plus $450 in accountant fees
2016 - I'll estimate $3500 (state + feds) (I had more expenses to write off this year), plus $350 in accountant fees (I didn't have the Scratch magazine LLC this year, so my accountant has fewer forms to fill out).
Keep in mind that I also have a salary job, and I honestly have no idea how the taxes I pay through that job impact my self-employment tax rates — in April, it all goes in the same burlap sack with dollar sign on the side, labelled 'property of IRS'.
Book Tour: -$3700 (estimated)
Yes, I am paying for my own book tour. Yes, this is pretty common nowadays. My tour includes AWP, so those costs are folded into the numbers below. These are estimates, as the tour still isn't done:
Transportation, lodging, conference fees: $3400 (estimated)
Meals - I don't know, say... $300?
The net net: $6-7K
Using the above numbers, I'll walk away with an estimated $6,450 as remuneration for 2+ years of work. If the book earns out its advance — which, again, isn’t likely, but if you want to help subvert the dominant paradigm you may do so here — I'll eventually get royalty payments. There could also be income from things like audio rights sales and translations. Film options are not likely for an anthology but heck, who knows, maybe someone wants to make one of those What To Expect When Your Valentine's Day is Full of Love Actually type of ensemble films about a bunch of authors who are obsessed with talking about money! Call me, Hollywood!
2. a thing about creative work
There's the money that goes into making a book, and then there's the labor. And the promotional labor. Many authors are expected to be publishing a lot in magazines and on websites around the time their books come out. The idea is to get your name (and the name of the book) "out there" in as many different types of places as possible, and maybe the repeated message will eventually click with readers and make them actually click "buy." Publishing, it's a science!
I haven't published anything in the past year, except Scratch. Before the book came out, I had a working list of op-eds and personal essays I might write to help promote it, but honestly? I was secretly dreading the prospect of dragging my ass into the online content stream. I am tired right now. And I also just happen to be in a creative moment where I'm not particularly interested in showing the world every nook and cranny of my brain. I'm marinating. Still, I gritted my teeth, and made my pitch list.
When I was about to launch Scratch, however, I got some really great, generous advice from publiciste extraordinaire Lauren Cerand. One of the many wise things Lauren said to me was, Don't work too hard writing new essays for promo. Just do interviews instead. So I'm just doing interviews.
I don't mean this advice to sound like a platitude or a plea for calm amid the crazy that is America. I am a fighter, I am riled up, I am pissed off at the jerks who are trying to hurt people to enrich themselves, and I have spent much of this past month yelling and marching and protesting and chaining myself to strategically selected corporations' headquarters (true story). But I also feel sad and small and made lonely. A lot. And Vincent's advice (to himself, no doubt, as much as to his bro) helps me remember that sometimes the choices available to us humans are not actually all that complicated. Sometimes life is simple, if not sweet.
events
Feb. 13
Cornell University
with J. Robert Lennon
Feb 15
Powerhouse Arena in Brooklyn
with Emily Gould, Porochista Khakpour, Leslie Jamison, Maud Newton
Feb 16
Two Ravens Tavern in Kingston, NY
with Sari Botton, Colin Dickey, and Martha Frankel
Feb 18
Catapult Publishing Workshop, NYC
There are still a couple spots left in my afternoon workshop: Money Changes Everything. LEARN FROM ME.
Feb 27
Powells Books in Portland, OR
with Cheryl Strayed, Cari Luna, Kevin Sampsell, and A.M. O'Malley
linkage
Eh, I'm not going to recommend any links this time. Try to stay off the internet and get out in the streets. Or at least get to the library.
xo
m.
and i send it to you about once a month.
1. a thing about money
I'm currently between legs of my "book tour" for Scratch. This tour is really just a bunch of small trips spread out over two months, because I have a day job now and can no longer just run off for two weeks to live that punk-rock, band-van lifestyle. Tomorrow, unless the weather intervenes, I leave for the AWP conference, which is already underway in DC. (And which probably means a lot of you are there now and none of you are reading this email!)
Anyway.
Response to the book has been far more enthusiastic than I anticipated (I am a worrier) and it's been a whirlwind month of mostly awesomeness. I feel proud. I feel grateful. I love that the book is doing what I wanted it to do, which is get people talking more openly about money's role in literature and other creative professions. Charlotte Shane wrote a thoughtful review talking about why this is so important for writers. But to my great surprise, in the dozens of interviews I have given about this book, so far only one (one!) journalist has asked me about the actual economics of making this book ... which is a book about the economics of making books. Journos, what's up? (That one interview was for The Millions, and it'll be online soon, and you should read it when it is cuz The Millions is great.)
So let's talk — really — about the money. As most of you know by now, this book is based in part on the late, great Scratch magazine (RIP). In the mag, we used to do a piece in every issue called The Transparency Index, in which we disclosed the finances behind the making of each editing of the mag. Hence, I present to you The Transparency Index: Book Version.
(Please note: the first man to write in and check my math/explain taxes to me gets blocked. In three, two, one...)
Advance: $30,000
Most traditionally published authors receive an advance — an up-front payment that is an “advance” against future earnings. A book advance is essentially an interest-free loan from a publisher to an author. In theory, once a book starts earning money, the author's share of those earnings are applied against the advance, and so an author doesn’t start earning actual money from royalties until the advance has been “earned out.” Many, many books never earn out. (When that’s the case, the author is not usually obligated to repay the advance.)
For Scratch, I received a $30,000 advance from my publisher, paid in three installments over the course of about two years: $15,000 upon signing of the contract in August 2015; another $10,000 upon the publisher's acceptance of the finished manuscript in April 2016 (i.e., after it's been edited and everything and is on its way into print production); and the remaining $5,000 upon publication of the book (January 3, 2017, but I actually just got the check today).
Agency fees: -$4500
My agent takes 15% across the board. And yes, she totally earns it.
Contributor fees: -$7050
Scratch has thirty-three contributors. Fifteen of them wrote new essays for the book; eight agreed to be interviewed; and ten agreed to have pieces they’d written priorly reprinted in the book (and sometimes they ended up rewriting them in the process). My publisher's contract is with me alone and the book's contributors are basically subcontractors: I signed a contract with S&S, and the book's contributors signed a contract with me. So it's up to me to pay them. Contributors were paid between $100 and $400 dollars each, depending on whether the piece was new, a reprint, or a rework (and depending on whether the author negotiated). Interviewees were paid nothing, because of journalistic ethics and all.
For their $100-$400, contributors to Scratch gave the publisher the exclusive right to publish their essays in this book, as well as the first serial rights to their essays. That means the publisher can place the essays in periodicals, either as paid first-serial publications or as "excerpts" for promotional purposes. For example, if you were one of the thousands and thousands of people who clicked on Emily Gould’s awesome Scratch essay about sexism in publishing, excerpted recently in BuzzFeed, Emily was paid nothing for your click.
Did you notice royalties are not part of the contributor payments listed up there? If the book earns out, the contributors won't receive royalties; ain't nobody in here want to be writin' checks for 6.5 cents to thirty people once a quarter for the rest of her life. (If it somehow earns tons of $$ in royalties, I promise to be nice and pass some of it on in tiered bonuses to the contribs, although that's not stipulated in their contracts.)
The moral of the story? Tip your authors, ladies and germs.
Taxes: -$8,300 (estimated)
Book earnings are self-employment earnings. 1099s, baby. I do get to write off expenses, such as my agent's fee and contributor fees. I haven't done my 2016 taxes yet, so some of this is guesswork:
2015 - $4,000 paid (total, state + feds), plus $450 in accountant fees
2016 - I'll estimate $3500 (state + feds) (I had more expenses to write off this year), plus $350 in accountant fees (I didn't have the Scratch magazine LLC this year, so my accountant has fewer forms to fill out).
Keep in mind that I also have a salary job, and I honestly have no idea how the taxes I pay through that job impact my self-employment tax rates — in April, it all goes in the same burlap sack with dollar sign on the side, labelled 'property of IRS'.
Book Tour: -$3700 (estimated)
Yes, I am paying for my own book tour. Yes, this is pretty common nowadays. My tour includes AWP, so those costs are folded into the numbers below. These are estimates, as the tour still isn't done:
Transportation, lodging, conference fees: $3400 (estimated)
Meals - I don't know, say... $300?
The net net: $6-7K
Using the above numbers, I'll walk away with an estimated $6,450 as remuneration for 2+ years of work. If the book earns out its advance — which, again, isn’t likely, but if you want to help subvert the dominant paradigm you may do so here — I'll eventually get royalty payments. There could also be income from things like audio rights sales and translations. Film options are not likely for an anthology but heck, who knows, maybe someone wants to make one of those What To Expect When Your Valentine's Day is Full of Love Actually type of ensemble films about a bunch of authors who are obsessed with talking about money! Call me, Hollywood!
2. a thing about creative work
There's the money that goes into making a book, and then there's the labor. And the promotional labor. Many authors are expected to be publishing a lot in magazines and on websites around the time their books come out. The idea is to get your name (and the name of the book) "out there" in as many different types of places as possible, and maybe the repeated message will eventually click with readers and make them actually click "buy." Publishing, it's a science!
I haven't published anything in the past year, except Scratch. Before the book came out, I had a working list of op-eds and personal essays I might write to help promote it, but honestly? I was secretly dreading the prospect of dragging my ass into the online content stream. I am tired right now. And I also just happen to be in a creative moment where I'm not particularly interested in showing the world every nook and cranny of my brain. I'm marinating. Still, I gritted my teeth, and made my pitch list.
When I was about to launch Scratch, however, I got some really great, generous advice from publiciste extraordinaire Lauren Cerand. One of the many wise things Lauren said to me was, Don't work too hard writing new essays for promo. Just do interviews instead. So I'm just doing interviews.
3. a thing about love
It's been very weird/dissonant to be in constant "BUY MY BOOK" mode whilst also witnessing the rapid rise of fascism in this country. And I have been looking for hope and love in all the wrong places, namely on the internet. Last week I finally went to the library again. There I stumbled upon an ancient copy of Dear Theo, a collection of letters from Vincent Van Gogh to his brother/manager (bro-ager?). Here's Vincent's advice for living:
It's been very weird/dissonant to be in constant "BUY MY BOOK" mode whilst also witnessing the rapid rise of fascism in this country. And I have been looking for hope and love in all the wrong places, namely on the internet. Last week I finally went to the library again. There I stumbled upon an ancient copy of Dear Theo, a collection of letters from Vincent Van Gogh to his brother/manager (bro-ager?). Here's Vincent's advice for living:
Let us keep courage and try to be patient and gentle. And not mind being eccentric, and make distinction between good and evil.
I don't mean this advice to sound like a platitude or a plea for calm amid the crazy that is America. I am a fighter, I am riled up, I am pissed off at the jerks who are trying to hurt people to enrich themselves, and I have spent much of this past month yelling and marching and protesting and chaining myself to strategically selected corporations' headquarters (true story). But I also feel sad and small and made lonely. A lot. And Vincent's advice (to himself, no doubt, as much as to his bro) helps me remember that sometimes the choices available to us humans are not actually all that complicated. Sometimes life is simple, if not sweet.
events
Feb. 13
Cornell University
with J. Robert Lennon
Feb 15
Powerhouse Arena in Brooklyn
with Emily Gould, Porochista Khakpour, Leslie Jamison, Maud Newton
Feb 16
Two Ravens Tavern in Kingston, NY
with Sari Botton, Colin Dickey, and Martha Frankel
Feb 18
Catapult Publishing Workshop, NYC
There are still a couple spots left in my afternoon workshop: Money Changes Everything. LEARN FROM ME.
Feb 27
Powells Books in Portland, OR
with Cheryl Strayed, Cari Luna, Kevin Sampsell, and A.M. O'Malley
linkage
Eh, I'm not going to recommend any links this time. Try to stay off the internet and get out in the streets. Or at least get to the library.
xo
m.
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